The last fight
by Emissary of Shadow
Summary: "It was over. The war was finally over. Then the familiar pain returned." One-shot, Fem!Harry - AU


**Traditional disclaimer: **I don't own a thing!

A panting Daphne leaned against Ailsa who barely managed to stay on her feet.

It was over. The war was finally over.

The familiar pain returned.

"No!"

She pushed Daphne to the side, seeing her beautiful and shocked face a last time before the world momentarily turned green before fading out.

**Welcome.**

Confused, Ailsa turned around. An odd creature sat in a chair beside a huge roaring fireplace, bigger than some homes she'd seen. A quick glance around her told her that the hall she was in could have been made for giants larger than the few that still roamed the earth.

But where was she? Just a few seconds ago they had narrowly beaten Voldemort.

_A familiar closet door slammed shut in front of her face. "Don't you ever speak to us like that again Freak." The open wounds on her back burned, having been treated with salt. Thankfully, for some reason, they didn't hear her howls of agony and her screams of pain. What had she done to deserve this?_

**That's the past. Come closer.**

She took a step forward and was assaulted with another memory.

_The newest batch of students had just arrived at Hogwarts, Hagrid having delivered them to Professor Mcgonagall. Ailsa had hoped to find friends at her new school, where people were just like her, but they weren't just like her. All of them wanted to be her friend, but not truly her friend. They wanted to bask in her fame, in her glory. The glory that belonged to her father, who had sacrificed himself for his family, the glory that belonged to her mother, who had sacrificed herself so that her child may live._

_Ailsa wished she could remember more but they had so little time together before they were ruthlessly murdered. _

_Except one girl she noticed, there was one girl standing away from the rest. Even then she had already been beautiful, though as unreachable as the stars._

**Continue on, dear.**

_First year had been a decent year. Ailsa loved flying on a broom. She had even managed to get into the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and thankfully had made three friends there, all who were one year ahead of her. Friends that actually wanted her because of who she was, not because of the title that was stuck to her name. _

Lovely Angelina, Alicia and Katie. A tear rolled down her face as everything she had pushed away came back with full force. She had made sure their graves were close to each other and with plenty of beautiful flowers surrounding them.

**You hesitate. Don't.**

_The second year had not been anything special either. More studying and more flying. One important thing had happened here though._

_It warmed her heart._

_She had started talking with the mysterious, beautiful girl that she had seen on her first day._

_Daphne Greengrass._

**It starts.**

The step forward allowed her a closer glance at the not-human-after-all-creature.

_In her third year they had been allowed to choose electives and here Ailsa had chosen for Ancient Runes and Arithmancy._

_Runes had soon become her favourite class, incorporating permanent charms onto objects, wards and rituals and she had appeared to have a natural ability for it. In the end she had been able to use Runes as fluently as a normal person would use English and it had saved their lives many times._

_Slowly she became closer to the black-haired girl of her first day. Daphne turned out to be a godsend. _

**Keep on going, human.**

_Then disaster struck in her fourth year._

_The DADA teaching quality dropped severely when Professor Quirrell switched from Muggle Studies to teach them DADA. The bumbling, stumbling fool could barely finished explaining what spell did, let alone how you should cast it, before the lesson was over. _

_Add to that that she had gotten detention in the Forbidden Forest where she witnessed the wraith of Voldemort, who apparently wasn't dead after all, feeding on the most holy of beasts, a unicorn. Not to mention the dragon she helped smuggle, she felt sorry for the dragon, out of Hogwarts which had caused the detention or the fact that Professor Quirrell turned out to be possessed by Voldemort and he was trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone, which a certain old man had chosen to guard in Hogwarts. Safest place in England, what a bullshit. Even a first year could have gotten through those defences._

_That was the first time she woke up in the Hospital Wing at the end of the year._

_And the first time that she realized a spark had come into existence between her and the dark-haired angel sitting at her bed, asleep._

**Step by step, child. **

_Her fifth year had been equally worthless. Another useless DADA teacher, Gilderoy Lockhart, may the Gods curse him, and a huge snake had been hidden in the school for a millennia. It turned out to be a basilisk, and guess who got to kill it?_

_You guessed it, she did. _

_And she felt absolutely no remorse when the Weasley bitch nearly died. In fact, she laughed, loudly. Her own damn fault for writing in that diary. Ailsa had been raised, if you could call it that, by the goddamned Dursleys and even she knew better._

_This was the second time she woke up in the Hospital Wing. This had never even been necessary in all her years of Quidditch._

_Thankfully Daphne, Angelina, Alicia and Katie had been there, as the latter three had been every year, to support her. Ailsa didn't know if she could have handled the hate of the school, supposedly being the Heir of Slytherin and attempting to killing all the Muggleborns, on her own. _

_She and Daphne had even become even closer. _

_Ailsa had started devling into forbidden arts, she had the feeling it wouldn't be the last time she would be in mortal danger._

**Don't fear, rather control your fear, do not let it control you.**

A pair of… hooves stuck out from under what had first seemed a woollen pair of paints but now she saw it was natural fur and her gaze travelled upward as the illusion that he creature maintained was dispelled.

_Her sixth year marked a few very important events. _

_Sirius Black, her godfather, had broken out of Azkaban. At first Ailsa, like everyone, believed that he had betrayed her parents but was quickly set on the right path after he had kidnapped her from Hogsmeade. He looked very nervous when she told him she could have killed him at will. Thank you, Ancient Runes._

_He had explained to her about how Dumbledore had manipulated their group and who the true traitor was. Sadly, and very coincidentally, the rat escaped as Ailsa made her way up the dorms. She wondered who had tipped him off?_

Images flew by.

_Their DADA professor this year had actually been quite a decent fellow and had been friends of her parents and godfather as well. Sadly, a jealous Snape had driven him out of the school after spreading the word that he was a werewolf._

_Thanks to him though, she learnt the Patronus Charm which ended up saving both her and Sirius, after he stupidly came onto the grounds in his Animagus form, she never got to know why exactly, from dozens of dementors. _

_She woke up in the Hospital Wing for the third time._

_Her relationship with Daphne progressed beyond a friendship at that point. Sadly, it was not to last._

**Two more steps before you're there, stay strong.**

_Her seventh year, the worst of all._

_Without having actually entered her name she had been chosen for the Triwizard Tournament, which would have had a better name if named the Quadriwizard Tournament. She had sworn an oath in front of everyone that she had not entered herself or asked anyone else to, but yet the hate of her fellow students persisted and she was left with her original three friends. _

_It nearly broke her when Daphne left her._

_She still shuddered whenever she thought of that year. She fought a dragon to get its egg, dove into a barely-not-freezing lake, duelled the other champions and made her way through a maze filled with deadly creatures._

_And here the second-worst blow of the year was struck._

_She had reached the Cup at the same time as her new friend, Fleur Delacour, who was also the champion of Beauxbatons and they grabbed it at the same time. However, it had led them to a graveyard instead of the award ceremony. Before they could even think or do something a green curse hit Fleur who slumped down in Ailsa's arms._

_Voldemort had been returned to his body and wasted no time. An assault on Hogwarts was launched, with everyone sitting outside of the actual wards._

_Half the leadership of the Ministry was killed before Dumbledore was able to beat Voldemort back._

_Ailsa barely had the chance to weep and grieve for Fleur before the war started._

_Thankfully, Angelina, Alicia and Katie had escaped the initial attack, they had been visiting to see the Fourth Task, and they, together with some other survivors, had ended up becoming one of the best teams to fight the self-styled Dark Lord_

**The final step.**

His torso looked more like a muscular human but the face with horns on his forehead reminded her.

_They had had intelligence that Voldemort had been planning another raid, had been given coordinates before they apparated, only to find smoking ruins. They were too late._

_A soft, weak cry of pain resounded however and they quickly made their way over._

_With a sickening gasp Ailsa realized that she recognized the mansion from verbal descriptions and her fears were confirmed when the single remaining live occupant was her dark-haired angel, trapped without her wand._

_A smile, filled with pain, appeared on Daphne's face as Ailsa quickly set to work to free Daphne and get out before the rest of the mansion collapsed._

_Her old friend went to work with extreme precision and yet there was not-so-little power behind it. _

_They got out just on time._

_They were watching the final collapse of the Greengrass Mansion when Daphne whispered._

"_I'm sorry for abandoning you four years ago, but I had no choice. I was never as strong as you and I could only let the compulsion charm and potion do their work."_

_Later they would learn that Severus Snape had met his end that evening. The connection quickly was made._

**Good job, child…**

Another six years later and standing in front of the mysterious creature she felt the weight of twenty-seven years, of which ten had been filled with open warfare, weigh down upon her. She had been the leader the past five and one of the few survivors the past year. There were maybe ten people left.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

His musical laughter resounded through the hall.

"You may call me the… Gatekeeper. As to where you are. Through there," he pointed towards the fire, "is the afterlife."

"So I'm dead then… Can -"She started but was interrupted by her host.

"Well, you see, that's the funny thing. Technically you are dead, but you don't have to remain dead." The Gatekeeper chuckled at expression. "The Killing Curse, as you call it, was designed with the intent to rip the soul from the body. However, it was made for one soul, as a human normally only has one soul."

"Does that mean – Wait, I was the last Horcrux?"

"Correct, even Voldemort himself, in his foolish quest to escape his fate, didn't realize that. Now, at last, he can finally be killed." His gaze intensified, seemed to burn into her head. "The question is, will you do it?"

More memories flashed by. Memories of Daphne slowly thawing. Memories of them getting to know each other, exiting the collapsing mansion, sitting by a tree on the shore of a lake.

The Gatekeeper chuckled silently as he saw the determination flare up in the young woman's eyes. "Well then, I'll just send you along. Wouldn't want Daphne meeting me too soon, would we?"

A fiery pentagram erupted under her feet.

"Good luck."

With a flash she disappeared.

* * *

Ailsa's eyes flew open and groaned as her back was lying on a sharp rock. Glancing around to the people she had last seen she saw something bad was about to happen.

Voldemort, seemingly having little energy left as he stumbled around without his wand, barely being able to walk and staring at the other.

Daphne, as indicated by the symbols around her was busy casting a very dark ritual, one that would take her life along with one other.

Ailsa stuck out her hand, magic being commanded by her will as the ritual was interrupted and Daphne flew into her. All three pairs of eyes opened wide. Ailsa's because she hadn't thought it through and Daphne was about to slam into her, Daphne's and Voldemort's because she was still alive.

"How?" two voices exclaimed.

Whirling around Ailsa managed to stop Daphne from hitting her and simultaneously slammed Voldemort against a rock behind him.

Normally at this point the Death Eaters would make them retreat, taking care of their Master's body as it needed to recover after being filled with a soul again, but they were all dead now. Brutally slaughtered at the hands of the few remaining rebels. They deserved nothing less.

Ailsa pricked open her finger as she kept Voldemort pinned up against the rock and in her blood drew a pentagram on his forehead. "Enjoy your stay in hell, Voldemort."

**Well done.**

The body of her nemesis erupted in green flame and disappeared.

Panting Ailsa dropped herself against the very same rock her old enemy had been flung against and sat down. A stumbling Daphne, still in shock, made her way over and sat beside her.

"Is it really you? What happened?"

Ailsa smiled and wrapped her arm around Daphne's shoulders.

"Well, it all started when I spotted a girl who was the epitome of the term 'Ice princess'…"

**A/N:**

The idea of the very first scene came to me and the rest just flowed forth.

Hope you all enjoyed it. And yes, I intentionally left a lot of stuff unanswered and vague. Use your imagination to fill in the blanks.

Also, for the ones that are taking a look because of Bones of Lightning and Ice, rest assured: Chapter 4 has been written and is the hands of my beta currently. :) (Bah, RL...)

Also yep: Penname change!

Don't be afraid to leave a review behind with what you thought of it. Criticism is always appreciated, flaming won't be.


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